Liszt 77

[Michael Strong @flowidealism]

When I was teaching at a high school in Alaska, we read Dostoyevsky's "Notes from Underground" together. Paragraph by paragraph. We spent six weeks on that one story.

Here's what paragraph-by-paragraph close reading actually looks like: I'd read a passage aloud. Then I'd ask, "What is the Underground Man really saying here?" Silence at first. Then someone would venture an interpretation. Someone else would push back. Within ten minutes, they'd be arguing about human nature, about pride and spite and self-deception.

People hear this and assume I was working with exceptional kids. I wasn't. I was working with kids who had never been asked to grapple with genuinely profound ideas before. In my experience, when you treat young people as capable of serious intellectual work, and take the time to train them how to read difficult texts, they learn how to do so.

[🅿️ @the_P_God]

Once you live in NYC you realize not a single place in America is in the same stratosphere.

At best they’re lame imitations. At worst they’re sad suburban sprawl.

Greatest city in America.

[Liszt 77 @bneveseven]

@taobanker Been following you for some time now and I feel we have a lot in common regarding this. Would you be open to messaging for longer-form convo about it? Feel like we could mutually get a lot of value out of it. I’m 22 graduating from a target rn in NYC finance

[Gavin (humanist/acc) @GavMcCracken]

I figured out why oil is trading the way it is -- It's simple: normal people think the issue here is the word "war". They think that if a peace deal is signed, all the infrastructure is instantly.repaired, and the lost barrels immediately flow "from the taps".

[Zarathustra @zarathustra5150]

There was more cultural diversity between New York & New Orleans a century ago than between any two global capitals (NY, Tokyo, Dubai, etc) today.

Nothing is more heartbreaking than walking into a city as steeped in culture+history as Istanbul & finding it aping the same cornball Instagram trends as the influencers in the West Village & West Hollywood.

[Liszt 77 @bneveseven]

@bussyrizzler What about williamsburg (french)

[Ryan @BanUnsweetTea]

Genuinely seems Trumps presidency is completely falling apart. Basic government services aren’t getting executed. He’s stuck in a quagmire in the Middle East. Job growth is negative and inflation is accelerating. Gas is 4-5 dollars a gallon. What a mess

[thermo @DionysianAgent]

main difference between americans and europeans is that americans think money and net worth are the ultimate status and intelligence signal

while europeans view it as more cross-domain and dependent on a mix of art, aesthetic, philosophy, and so on

this is why we have such a conflict between how the two different continents choose their idols

young americans desperately idolize people like Elon, Trump, Silicon Valley tech moguls, and anyone who achieves billionaire status, as if their word is law

young europeans can’t stand them, doesn’t matter how much money Elon gets, europeans will never respect or like him, because he doesn’t embody the european standard for what is seen as a great man - he is no philosopher, he is no artist, he is no scientist, thus he doesn’t measure up in any meaningful way to the historical european greats, despite how much wealth and resources he may hoard

this disconnect in evaluating masculine competence and what defines the admirable traits of man is what creates the greatest conflict between european men and american men

we simply don’t respect american men intellectually, and probably never will

and they can’t stand that

they can’t stand that europeans won’t be bootlickers like them

they can’t stand that europeans have a rich deep soul that requires deep stimulation in order to recognise greatness

they can’t stand it because it reveals the underlying truth that americans don’t have a soul

it reveals the truth beneath the floorboards, the soulless fast food culture of america, the culture of strip mall churches and hyper slop

they can’t stand that europeans hold a mirror to their face and show americans what ugly creatures they actually are

[The Icahnist @TheIcahnist]

Her: "Babe, stop dressing like a 70s oil trader, you don't even smoke cigars"

Me five seconds later:

[Liszt 77 @bneveseven]

@mrplentyhoes How could you forget “I Get Money”

[Liszt 77 @bneveseven]

@pl8tocave @Bowtiedsocial I assume those would fit into “protesters”

[Liszt 77 @bneveseven]

@rich_toad GUIDE

[Mehdi (e/λ) @BetterCallMedhi]

this right here is the reason China stays quiet on Iran

everyone losing their mind asking where is Beijing while the US & Israel are bombing a major chinese energy partner and the answer is so brutal in its simplicity that most analysts miss it completely, the empire is eating itself alive and China is already building the replacementt

America just dragged the entire Middle East into a war for Israel & now Saudi arabia, UAE, kuwait & qatar are sitting in a room discussing pulling out of US contracts & canceling investment commitments

the Gulf states, the literal foundation of the petrodollar, the system that has kept the US dollar as world reserve currency since 1974 actively discussing the exit and Beijing did absolutely nothing to make that happen…Washington did it to itself

but here's what people miss: china saw this coming years ago and already laid the tracks, literally the belt & road Initiative has quietly wired 150 countries into c’hinese infrastructure, ports, railways, highways, fiber optic cables, power grids…while the western media barely covered it

Saudi Arabia started selling oil to China in yuan in 2023, that alone should have been front page news for a month, the BRICS just expanded to include Saudi arabia UAE and Iran in the samea bloc, China built CIPS as a direct alternative to SWIFT so the entire non western world can settle trade without ever touching the dollar, every single one of these moves was made before a single bomb fell on Iran

and then there's Africa…the youngest continent on earth, median age 19, projected to reach 2.5 billion people by 2050, the largest workforce the planet has ever seen & China understood 20y ago that whoever builds Africa's infrastructure owns the 21st century, while the US was spending 4 trillion dollars destroying Iraq & Afghanistan China was building railways in Kenya, dams in Ethiopia, ports in Djibouti, highways in Nigeria, tech hubs in Rwanda, stadiums, hospitals, government buildings, telecom networks powered by Huawei across the entire continent.. & they did it without firing a single bullet, no regime change, no sanctions, no lectures on democracy, just concrete steel, fiber optic and longterm contracts

so when people ask why China stays silent on Iran the answer is that silence is the strategy, every war America fights for Israel costs trillions, destabilizes energy markets, alienates Gulf partners and pushes the entire Global South closer to a system Beijing spent two decades building

the gulf states pivoting right now has zero to do with ideology, Washington turned their entire neighborhood into a warzone to serve Tel Aviv's regional strategy & then asked them to keep buying treasury bonds with a straight face….the math just stopped working and when the math stops working loyalty stops too

beijing's silencee on Iran is the most patient & most devastating move on the board, China is watching america dismantle its own hegemony in real time while quietly inheriting every alliance washington burns, it just has to keep building & keep quiet

Napoleon said nver interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake, Xi turned that into a 50y doctrine & right now it's paying off faster than even beijing expected

[Memory Medieval @MemoryMedieval]

There's a really simple answer to this.

You don't see 23 year olds creating masterworks (or doing things that 23 year olds did centuries ago, for almost all of human history) because modernity delays the ascension to adulthood for young men.

There are exceptions. I will briefly explain.

In almost every previous era, young men would have been expected to take their place among adults as young as 14, often 16, surely by 18.

I know what some of you Redditers are going to say... "young men become adults today at 18, its the same!" No, its not. Culturally, it's not.

Michelangelo was apprenticed to the sculptor with the largest workshop in Florence at age 13. Do you see any 13 year olds apprenticing with world-class talent today?

Here's another, more recent example.

Alexander Hamilton fought in the Revolutionary War from 20 years old until he was about 27. When he got out of the army, he studied law on his own for 6 months, passed the bar, and became a lawyer.

A lawyer at 28 years old, with 7 years of war service and the founding of a country under his belt.

Today, a young man will go to four years of college (until 22), three years of law school (25) and then maybe even take time after that to study for and pass the bar.

But today's young man is 25 and Hamilton was 27! Yeah, Hamilton was 27 with a decade (or more) of insane work/life experience under his belt. Todays young man of 25 is entering the workforce for his first job at an entry level position with no experience at 25.

Back to Michelangelo.

If you're apprenticing at 13, you're going to have ten years of TOP LEVEL EXPERIENCE by the time you're 23.

Todays "artists" may grow up doodling, take some high school classes. Go to four years of "art school" (total waste, btw, but unrelated), at which point they go out and look for entry level work (or begin freelancing) at 22 years old.

Todays 22 year old artist may not even see a professional work in person at the same age that Michelangelo had NINE YEARS of EXPERIENCE working with one of the best sculptors on the planet.

Now before I get the next goofy rebuttal "Okay well Michelangelo and Hamilton were exceptional." Yes, of course.

But what you have to understand is that they emerged from a culture that made young men at that age exceptional. They were at the top, sure, but there were many, many, many JUST below them.

They didn't emerge from a vacuum.

Young men in previous eras were almost universally prepared and expected to be accomplishing at a world-class level by the time they are in their early-to-mid 20s.. their "prime".

You do see this today but in other fields, such as sports.

You can have a young Messi at 13 who goes to Barcelona. He goes through the system and is world-class by the time he's 21 or 22.

We can see how this makes sense for athletes, most will be finished before 40.

But the thing is, it also applies to all other disciplines, we're just addicted to credentialization, bureaucracy, and (quite frankly) nonsense so we delay the growth of young men by keeping them overlong in "high school" and "college" and thinking we are "preparing them" when in reality all of society is designed to hold them back and keep them at a middling-but-serviceable level for their entire lives.

Culturally we don't see GREAT AND POWERFUL young men because our culture doesn't take an interest in producing them. Our culture's interest is in producing managers, administrators, bureaucrats, taxpayers, subscribers, and consumers.

So we don't live in an era of high competition to do great things in normal fields like art. Competitive young men are today building bullshit AI hustles, managing OnlyFans prostitutes, or (more legitimately) going into sales, sports, or other venues where they can at least get some commiserate payoff to their efforts and personal drive.

Do you want 23 year olds to be making incredible scuptures again?

We haven't even gotten to the other side of the coin.

Who is going to pay them to do it?

I don't see anyone lining up to commission amazing 23 year old sculptors. The Pope doesn't even do this any more (to my knowledge).

It all boils down to two questions.

If you want to see young men of supreme ability and excellence, you have to ask yourself two questions.

Who is going to pay the 23 year old to do said excellent thing?

And who is going to apprentice said 13 year old to begin learning it.

Todays teenagers have access to the internet and are allowed to hustle and scam on the margins.

That's why you see (aside from 20 year old Cooper Flagg tearing up the NBA) 23 year old TikTok marketing millionaires or Rolex-wearing Onlyfans pimps today and no Michelangelos.

[RT @RT_com]

'Beirut being destroyed by Israel, 1 of single UGLIEST countries in the world... sorry, it's true' — Tucker

'It always seems like BEAUTIFUL thing wind up being destroyed — Europe, Beirut, parts of Syria, Iran'

'This does seem like a war on BEAUTY as well'

[Liszt 77 @bneveseven]

@dqwang0702 @Aident_AI Same, I’m a big fan.

[Liszt 77 @bneveseven]

@kart_ben @sull1vannolan @abcampbell I thought he was Yale guy

[Liszt 77 @bneveseven]

@abcampbell So what

[Aident AI @Aident_AI]

AI agents are impressive.
Until you try to actually use them in production.

They’re slow.
They break.
They’re black boxes.

We’ve been fixing that.

In 2 days, we launch something different.

[Liszt 77 @bneveseven]

@rvc330 AI slop